Sometimes having a blog is like building your very own puzzle. This blog is now three years old and its growth was not always controlled. I added bits and pieces, tweaked the design, moved things around. It did reach the point where none of the puzzle’s pieces seemed to assemble properly. It was time for a good overhaul, and I did it… What you see right now is the result of it.

The base remains the same: aviation contents. The logo has been updated and the navigation concept is new. Some pages vanished: those providing you with syndicated contents from other blogs as well as the library and download sections. I’m reducing contents to focus more on the blog and to make it more personal.

But wait, it’s not all. If you know me, you know I’m a fervent advocate of aviation as a community. Pilots are not selfish guys locked-up in their cockpits but parts of a great community. When I started this blog three years ago I did not expected it to bring me in touch with so many aviation enthusiasts. I won’t list all of them here, but just say thank you to you. The Flying Across America project was the top of what the aviation community gave me… so far.

My way of saying thank you is to create a new website to help you building more links in the aviation community. Internet is a wonderful tool for this purpose. All the pages I removed from this blog now live there as well. This new website aiming at creating more connections is simply called ConnectingPilots.com. Check it today and don’t forget to connect! Use twitter, facebook and the newsletter. Its structure is in place and I’ll continue to add content to it over the next days.

Taking these pieces of the puzzle to another place helped to make things clear and I’m sure you will like ConnectingPilots.com. Talking about puzzle pieces, some were missing here. I never integrated a real collection of links. This is now possible via my new Links page. Contact me if you want your aviation site to be listed. Note that I’m also working on a massive links directory on ConnectingPilots.com.

The last missing piece in this puzzle was a newsletter. This gap is now filled and you can “contact my frequency” using the form below. You will receive mails from me every now and then about what is going on in aviation. It is just like hanging out at an airport but online. No spam, and it is free – I really appreciate you to join.

While I’m flying across America, I’ll do my best to continue publish posts here and lot leave you alone in the dark. No new contents today. This blog did grow over time and I want to show you less known parts of plasticpilot.net which I’m sure you’ll like.

Let’s start this visit outside the blog, with a digest of aviation blogs I read. When I find a great post in my RSS reader, I flag it to share it with you. Click here to read these aviation articles I liked. You can naturally subscribe to plasticpilot.net RSS feed as well or click here to receive plasticpilot.net per e-mail.

If you look for information on a specific themes, the archives or my homebase page are good places to start. Amongst others, you’ll find links to my collection of aviation documents available for download. It contains aircraft flight manuals, pilot’s manual for several avionics parts, aviation accidents investigation reports, training manuals and much more. For avid aviation readers, check this list of recommended aviation books and visit my amazon store of aviation books.

The aviation photo galleries are probably amongst the well known feature of this blog. These 57 galleries contain more than 3500 pictures taken in light aviation cockpits, on general aviation tarmacs or at aircraft factories like the Pilatus Factory in Stans or the Cirrus final assembly line in Bembridge. Pictures from other photographers are welcome. Contact me if you have aviation pictures you want to share.

Readers surveys are now a long lasting tradition. Every month I ask you a question about your flying or your views on general aviation. There is no deadline to answer and you can send yours and join the conversation at any point in time. The questions cover different aspects of flying, like How do you like your flight instructors ? or Most missing thing in light aircraft ?. Even if you’re a new reader, I’d like you to take part. Visit this page with all readers surveys and have your word. There are 24 of them now, I’m sure you’ll fine some interesting ones.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of my website. If you have any ideas for new features, let me know. I’m not making it only for me, but also for you, dear readers.

376 new pictures are available under http://gallery.plasticpilot.net. These are pictures of a DA42 TwinStar and a Socata TB10 Tobago, both IFR and VFR. The TB10 is a single engine piston aircraft, manufactured by Socata in southern France. This one has a nice instrument panel. No G1000 glass-cockpit but a Sandel electronic HSI.

I’m happy to finally have some DA42 pictures, as I had no opportunity to make some during my own MEP training. The rest of the series show sceneries of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Thanks a lot to Rik, the pilot in training and photographer who sent me these pictures. If you also want to share some of your pictures and may be earn a few dollars, contact me.

300,112 – This is not the number of times I landed an aircraft, I’m far from that. This is also not my total flight time expressed in seconds, I’m way beyond that.

300,120 – This is the (updated) number of pages seen on this blog since the 28th of August 2007.

300,122 – Two more while I was writing the last sentence. When I started writing about my G1000 training, in a hotel room in Cannes, I could not imagine how far starting this “blogging-thing” would take me. Lots of writing, but lots of feedback from you, and this is the best part for me. Many new friends as well, some I met “in the real life”, some I even flew with.

300,125 – Even the crazy Flying Across America project finds its roots in this blog. Without this blog, I would never have been in contact with Jason.

300,126 – Just like landings, and many other things, one gets better at blogging with experience. At least I hope so, and this is one more reason to continue. So expect more, but before I’ll have a couple of drinks, and if you have some too, please have one for me…

Drink your coffee with style, and show your passion for aviation to those around you with the PlasticPilot mug! Available from the plasticpilot.net online store in various sizes.

Water bottles, can coolers and travel mugs are also available, along with tee-shrits and mousepads.

When this time of year comes, I like to take a short look back, and get ready for the upcoming year. Unfortunately, 2009 has not been a very active year for me from a flying point of view. Because of personal and professional reasons including a move, an incredibely fascinating but demanding job, my flying activities have been limited to getting my Multi-Engine Piston rating on a DA42 TwinStar and test-flying the Tecnam P2002 JF. I also decided to stop my flying to save money for a major project planned in 2010: Flying Across America. Long story short, flying from Florida to California and back in a Cessna 150, together with Jason Schappert, the Flight Instructor and blogger behing M0A.com.

From a blogging point of view, 2009 was focused on writing higher quality posts, but at a lesser frequency. This was to cope with my job and avoid the pitfall of continuing on a high tempo at the price of a lower quality. This was not an easy move to make, but it definitely the correct one. By the way, let me thank you all, readers, who take the time to read what I post here, leave comments, and interact in a way or the other. 2009 was rich in contacts and exchanges and I hope that 2010 will be the same.

The results of my last reader’s poll – Who Are You ? – was a bit of a surprise. You come from all possible corners of aviation, and from all parts of the world. A great bunch of aviators from all horizons, building a small community around this blog – I love that. Thank you. I experienced a bit with social media this year: and you can find more of PlasticPilot on Twitter, join the PlasticPilot and Friends group or become a fan on facebook. Check the contact page to find more about all possible ways to keep in touch.

Let me also say a word to thank Jason Miller and the team at ForeFlight. Their grant help running this blog and they never made any remark or comment regarding the contents of my posting. You’re a great sponsor, thank you for that.

2010 will be a year of travel for me. I’ll be away from home almost two months. Once for work, and then 30 days for the Flying Across America project. But I won’t leave you alone in the dark during these times. I’m already preparing some surprises and will also ask fellow aviation bloggers for some guest posting.

I will certainly tweak the design of features of this blog again in 2010, and if you’ve any wishes, suggestions or request, let me know. I want this blog to be yours, more than ever, so feel free.

As you can imagine, I’m really looking forward to being airborne again, particularly for such a great trip than the one I plan with the Flying Across America project. I’ll report more about it on the blog there, and certainly here as well. Great moments of flying and hangar flying to come!

I wish you a happy new year 2010, full of safe flying, of happy landings, of learning. May you enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy posting here, and let us have one more great year celebrating aviation together.

Cheers!

Vincent.

Dear Reader,

Today’s post has nothing to with flying or aviation. I just want to wish you a Merry Christmas. May you spend good times with your family, friends and relatives.

Vincent.

I’m not redefining mathematics but celebrating an almost perfect alignment of events on this blog:

• on 28th of August, plasticpilot.net will turn two years old
• this post is the 700th
• the hits counter hit the 200,000 mark today

Not bad for a blog that started as a way to share experience during my G1000 training. The archives reflect this work and picking favorites is but I tried. Here’s my personal selection:

• Visiting the Pilatus factory in Stans (Switzerland)
• Cirrus 147 Fly-in to Bembridge
• The last words of Swissair 111
• Interview of Jessica Cox, the first armless woman to get her pilot’s certificate
• First flight of my 9 months old daughter (now 3 years old)
• Flight from Bournemouth to Guernsey
• Cannes to Bastia in IFR
• Multi-engine and Instrument check-ride
• The absence of unacceptable hazards
• White-Waltham and the West London Aero-Club
• The less fun part of light aviation
• London-City, the forbidden land in pictures

I could continue this list endlessly. Because I’m the blogger and you the reader our points of view are different. The best part of editing this blog for me is to get in touch with many of you. Be it per comments, e-mail or in real life, exchanging with you is an exhilarating experience and I hope it will continue.

Thank you, and don’t forget: this blog is yours.

Blog posts are like landings: some are good, some are bad, but all must be to a minimal standard to be survivable. And just like flying is more than landing, managing a blog is more than writing posts. Reading and answering comments, reading other blogs and posting comments are important, just like engine monitoring and flight-plan update en-route.

The time I can use for these tasks has been seriously squeezed over the last weeks. I accumulated a small backlog and ended-up in being behind the plane… sorry, behind the blog. This is not a situation I like. I much prefer to blog less than let the quality go down. I’m not announcing the end of this blog, just a little slow down.

Why is my time squeezed ? My life is quite busy, my job enters a new phase of high-activity and the Flying Across America project generates a lot of work. I also have longer posts in preparation for this blog. Not the kind of posts I can write within an hour. This website will turn two by the end of August and I plan some changes. Let me know if you have wishes or ideas.

Now, sit back, relax, and continue enjoying this blog and its archives.

I’m happy, I solved one of my old problems. I often find cool, funny, passionating information on the web that I’d like to share here but which are not sufficient to build a full post. Compilations are a possible way to cope with that but some of these links loose their interest after a couple of days or can not easily be grouped with other ones. I also don’t like to publish short posts on this blog but longer, elaborated ones. Mixing mini-posts in the middle does not match with what I try to build here.

The posts from other blogs and other pilots blogging pages do not really solve the problem: what about links not coming through a feed, what about news, what about videos founds while browsing YouTube or nice pictures that friends and readers send me ?

The solution is now here: Stall warning ! This is a new mini-blog, made of short posts only, all relating to aviation. It has been online for a couple of weeks and has already more than 60 posts in various categories: News, Blog post, Fun, Video, Photo, … There are a handful of updates daily… from a handful of contributors. If you have something to share or want to join as a contributor and eventually share the revenue, feel free to contact me.

I really hope you will enjoy stall warning as I enjoy to animate it and that we’ll make it a success together ! Visit it, enjoy it, talke about it, and feel free to comment about it here, or there.